This is an odd way to find out about a new smartphone from HTC, but there was a ruling on Tuesday morning that threatened HTC's One smartphone from being pulled from the UK market.

Well, Judge Richard Arnold looks to have slipped that there is an HTC One successor coming very soon. Judge Arnold slipped the news nugget during his decision, where he said: "HTC is close to launching the successor flagship model to the HTC One. HTC has not revealed the launch date. Nokia has adduced evidence which suggests that the launch date is in the first quarter of 2014 and possibly as early as February 2014. HTC has not contradicted this."

The reason behind Judge Arnold bringing up the unreleased, unannounced One successor, is that HTC is worried that its business will suffer (more so than it is now) if the HTC One disappears from the UK market before it can unleash a new smartphone. Judge Arnold says that the HTC One successor will be released in Q1 2014.